All CEO's pay 40% on production.
I do have my CEO's buy the AEPs though, but that is because I own about 600 corps in my own countries. With a good education system it is not hard to keep up with. It is a small subsidy to the country.
Also, if you are buying a lot of pop and building a bunch of corps at one time, don't buy the AEP b/c the system, even with a great ed index, is already under tremendous strain, and the "helpful" automatic systems with kick in and suck ed and health workers out, causing severe shortages in these worker classes.